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Somali group seen as moving towards Al-Qa'idah merger

Released on 2013-06-17 00:00 GMT

Email-ID

5208849

Date

2008-04-08 13:24:33

From

scott.stewart@stratfor.com

To

ct@stratfor.com, mark.schroeder@stratfor.com, mesa@stratfor.com

Somali group seen as moving towards Al-Qa'idah merger

The Somali insurgent group the Mujahidin Youth Movement (MYM; aka
Al-Shabaab) has issued a statement in Arabic, prominently advertised on
the front page of the pro-Al-Qa'idah Al-Ikhlas web site, reiterating the
group's indifference towards its addition to the US list of terrorist
organizations last month. The statement was seen by one commentator as a
sign that the group was about to announce an official merger with the
global Al-Qa'idah organization. The group reaffirmed its salafi jihadist
ideology and urged mujahidin across the world to unite under "one banner".
It said it was not surprised by the US State Department's decision to
designate the MYM a terrorist group on 18 March and considered it an
honour, threatening the African Union peacekeeping forces in Somalia with
a two-month campaign of violent attacks.

In an implicit criticism of the Somali Union of Islamic Courts, the
statement said it was not possible to reconcile between jihad and keeping
the US happy, dismissing the endeavour as a hopeless case. The MYM had
earlier responded to its designation as a terrorist group in an interview
with a Somali-language radio station HornAfrik. (See BBC Monitoring report
entitled "Somalia's Al-Shabaab group 'happy' to be on US terror list"
dated 19 March 2008).

In typical jihadist rhetoric and anti-US sentiments, the group's latest
statement said that the US decision was proof that the MYM was pursuing
the right path. It defiantly reaffirmed that terrorizing the enemy was a
religious duty, citing a famous Koranic verse which urged Muslims to equip
themselves well to "terrorize" the "enemies of God". The statement
concluded with the group's announcement of a campaign dubbed "Our
terrorism is commendable". It said the campaign would last two months from
5 April 2008, the date on which the statement was released. However, it
declined to give further details, saying that the outcome of the campaign
would be seen in the form of the scattered "sculls of your hunting dogs",
a reference to the Ethiopian, Ugandan and Burundian forces operating in
Somalia.

An Al-Qa'idah supporter on a jihadist web site interpreted the statement
as an indication that the Mujahidin Youth Movement would soon swear
allegiance to Al-Qa'idah. He cited some quotes from the statement as
evidence that the group was following in the footsteps of the Algerian
Salafi Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) which re-branded itself Al-Qa'idah
in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb.

The author of the well-written statement appeared to be very proficient in
classical Arabic and well-versed in jihadist rhetoric and ideology. The
three-page statement was signed off by the Mujahidin Youth Movement's
General Command. The group's logo appeared at the bottom of the statement.

The statement was issued by the group's media unit and distributed by its
official distributor, the jihadist media group the Global Islamic Media
Front (GIMF). The statement appeared on several jihadist web sites.